


For Love or Money?

by nightmistress



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, M/M, Not Klaine Friendly, kurtbastian
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-06
Updated: 2013-07-04
Packaged: 2017-12-10 14:36:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/787146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightmistress/pseuds/nightmistress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sebastian Smythe never thought he would be looking for a husband to secure his future. Sebastian has a plan of course and who is Kurt Hummel to ruin that?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. What fresh hell is this?

Sebastian Smythe let out a sigh worthy of the biggest drama queen. He laughed at himself and thought 'if anything is worth dramatics this situation most certainly wins.' Somehow his love for his family had led him to this place and even had caused him to be more cooperative than the happy event deserved. He often said that he didn't do relationships or love, and yet he found himself, bound by the love for his family, participating in an absurd modern day version of a courtship ball.

* * *

The Smythe family was what people called an "old money" family. Unfortunately that meant the majority of their socializing was with other prominent families. While Sebastian felt blessed that his parents and sister were such great people, he hadn't met a lot of people in that world who were above all the social politics. By the time he had enrolled at Dalton his automatic defense system against anyone not in his family were fully in place, and he hadn't expected that to change. 

It took a combination of the shock and shame of the events in his junior year, and earning the forgiveness of the other Warblers, for Sebastian to start acting a little more human again. He realized he had more of a sense for picking out the people he could truly be friendly with from the sea of social-climbing kiss ups. He was still Sebastian Smythe, however, he had little patience for fools, and he enjoyed cutting down the idiots he came across. By the time he graduated from Dalton to head to NYU he had become what his sister called 'the improved not much different but more tolerable' Sebastian. He still didn't believe in more than a casual love life, but he had at least one new relationship. His best friends Jeff and Nick, the hyper Warblers affectionately known as Niff.  
Sebastian and Niff were all headed to NYU after graduation and with family connections were able to live in the same apartment building close to campus. Their first semester flew by in a whirl of partying, classes, and learning the city that felt like home to them all.  
Sebastian's happy little bubble was popped when his parents came to visit over the Christmas holidays. 

They informed him that they had been planning a party for new years eve. Before he could enjoy the idea too much they informed him that the party was his. They saw the confusion and growing dread on his face and explained to him that the party was part of a Smythe family tradition. When a family member came of marrying age they had a coming out party of sorts. Eligible singles from prominent families were invited, to provide an opportunity to make the 'right' kind of connections. Many old families took part in this tradition even now. His parents explained that it was his grandmother that was insisting on the party. His sister had escaped the tradition because she had gotten engaged to her childhood friend and sweetheart, on her eighteenth birthday. They explained that his grandmother might not have bothered if he hadn't moved to New York where he could legally get married according to his preference. She had insisted on having the party and having Sebastian meet with the would be suitors.  
His parents assured him that he wouldn't have to marry any of the suitors, but he would have to meet with all the interested parties. His parents had been interfering in the party plans as much as they could get away with, in an effort to lessen the horror of the event for their son. They had even invited Jeff and Nick and a couple of other s in order to make the party somewhat enjoyable for Sebastian.

Sebastian couldn't believe they expected him to go through with this ridiculous idea, and informed them that they couldn't force him into this stupid tradition. His parents informed him that unless he went through with the party his grandmother wouldn't release to him his considerable trust fund on his 21st birthday. His grandmother controlled the majority of the Smythe estate and while his parents were wealthy in their own right, this trust would keep him in luxury for the rest of his life. They wanted that for him and all he had to do was go through with this event. Sebastian calmly informed his parents that he would be speaking with his grandmother before making a decision. Sebastian set up a meeting with his grandmother and contemplated his options. He would be going through with the party, but he was determined to find out his grandmother's motives and whether he could expect future obstacles from her. He knew his grandmother wasn't very fond of him or his orientation and he suspected that this wouldn't be the last time she used her power to make him dance to her tune. Sebastian left the meeting with his grandmother feeling like he had come out of an intense business negotiation. His suspicions of the older woman had been correct and he had insisted on settling on an agreement regarding his trust. His grandmother had coldly informed him that if he had to continue his lifestyle then she would like it to be with some propriety. She had agreed to release his trust if he was engaged or married to a respectable man by his twenty-first birthday. He was also supposed to cause as little trouble as possible at his party. Sebastian agreed to give his first few suitors his complete attention and cooperation, but insisted that he would weed out the rest as he saw fit. They agreed and Sebastian left as quickly as he could.

This is how Sebastian found himself sitting in an office off the ballroom of some grand hotel on New Year's Eve. The first three suitors were exactly the type of social-climbing fakes that he hated. It was literally painful to sit through those meetings and act pleasant to the babbling phonies. After the third one had left Sebastian quickly got ready to streamline the rest of the process. He hopped onto the desk, unzipped his pants and laid back with a smile on his face as he called for the next suitor. The idiot was wonderfully shocked and appalled, and without even looking at him Sebastian calmly said "I can't be with someone who can't even please me, so consider this a test of your husbandly skills." Sebastian smirked as the fool let out a huff and stormed out of the room. Four more would-be suitors left just as quickly and Sebastian couldn't be more pleased with himself. He only had one more fool to get rid of and he would be free to come up with a plan to win his trust from his grandmother.

Sebastian was in a fairly good mood as the last person entered and like the others he didn't bother to look at him as he drawled "I refuse to be in a celibate marriage so show me what you've got or find your way out." There was a moment of silence and then Sebastian heard footsteps come over to the desk. He was shocked but also happy that he would be getting a blow job out of this tragedy before he let down the poor _sucker_. He managed to keep from looking at the naive man wanting to keep the experience as impersonal as possible. Sebastian laid back and enjoyed as the suitor quickly worked him into full hardness and started bobbing on his cock. He had to admit the guy had some skills, maybe he could string him along for a little longer and get him into bed he mused. Sebastian was getting closer to an orgasm when all of a sudden the guy sucked him straight down his throat and Sebastian let go with a shout.

Sebastian lay there for a while enjoying his blissed out state. After catching his breath he sat up hoping that the body attached to the amazing mouth would be nice enough to keep the guy around for awhile. He looked up with smile on his face to charm the surprisingly skilled man. He looked straight into a pair of familiar glasz eyes and yelled, "What the fuck are you doing here?" Kurt Hummel smirked at him and dropped gracefully into the chair in front of the desk. "Short term memory Smythe? I believe I was _showing you what i've got_ ", drawled a sarcastic Kurt.

For one of the few times in his life Sebastian Smythe was stunned speechless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first Kurtbastian fanfic. I really love these two and they would be brilliant in canon. I'm starting this out with a lot of background, but if I continue there will be less of third person pov. If I get comments from people liking the start of this I will add more chapters.


	2. An Explanation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cookies for all of my commenters! you inspire me to write more:) Also side note I don't have a beta so all mistakes are mine.  
> Also I hope to keep to the schedule of one chapter each weekend.

"Somebody please mark this day on the calendar, Sebastian Smythe is speechless," said a smirking Kurt. "They'd have to squeeze it in next to Kurt Hummel is wearing boy clothes princess," shot back Sebastian. Actually Sebastian thought that Kurt cleaned up pretty nicely in his dark grey suit, but he wasn't going to tell him that. He was still trying to wrap his mind around the situation when he heard Kurt sigh.

Kurt looked at Sebastian and frowned, "Really Sebastian? Going to start with the girl comments again? What happened to playing nice? For your information I'm not actually ashamed of having a feminine or masculine side, and I don't let long-standing gender roles stop me from doing or enjoying whatever I like," snapped Kurt.  
Sebastian put his hands up and backtracked " Sorry princess you've caught me by surprise a bit here and I enjoy bantering with you so much it's easy to fall back into old habits. I certainly don't think you're anything less than a man after that hot welcome you gave me." Sebastian winked at him. "But since you're so adamant about it I think I'll keep calling you princess out respect and appreciation for your all your sides."

Kurt gave Sebastian a resigned smile and muttered, "At least it's an upgrade of status." At Sebastian's confused look Kurt begrudgingly said, "Santana lovingly refers to me as Lady Hummel, actually you two are oddly alike and I'm friends with her so I suppose I can make the effort for you. "Also I guess I've always enjoyed our banter as well, it isn't often that someone can keep up with me.  
Sebastian laughed and said, " you have some strange friends Hummel." "Well I call her Satan so I guess we're equally strange," replied Kurt. Now that he thought about it Kurt was friends with a lot of people he had disliked at some point. He supposed that adding Sebastian to the mix wouldn't be too hard, and he hated to admit it but he did always like the being able to match wits with Sebastian, even if he hadn't always liked the topic.

Sebastian finally felt like he had come back to Earth enough to find out what the heck had led Kurt Hummel back into his life, and in such a shocking way as well. Sebastian smirked at Kurt and asked, "So princess mind telling me how I came to be enjoying the pleasure of your company?" Kurt rolled his eyes at his tone and answered, "Well I've kept in touch with Niff, my two favorite warblers, and they informed me that you were having a ball in your honor milady."

Sebastian laughed at the teasing and gestured for Kurt to continue. Kurt smiled and said, " Actually they told me that your grandmother was forcing you into this party to meet the right sort of people for you to have connections with in the future." "They thought it would be great if I was added to the guest list, so they could hang out with me, and I figured being a congressman's son would be a good enough reason for me to be considered a good business contact. Plus I've missed the insanity of those two and I wanted to see if I could tolerate living in the same city as you," finished Kurt.

Sebastian was relieved Kurt thought he was meeting business contacts, and then he instantly remembered he had already revealed the nature of his meetings when Kurt had walked in. He sighed and asked Kurt, " How did you manage to find your way back here?" He tacked on the silent question _'and why did you do what you did'_? Kurt obviously heard both questions as Sebastian could see his pale skin turn a light pink.

An embarrassed Kurt continued his story, "It wasn't until I got to the party tonight that Jeff and Nick told me that this party was also an opportunity for you to speak with potential marriage partners. I was going to wait until you were finished and catch up with those two, but they in their infinite wisdom informed me that they had set me up as one of the hopefuls when they asked your parents to put me on the guest list. 

Sebastian realized his parents probably thought that a politician's son that he already knew would give him a bit of relief from the process. Kurt continued to relay the story as his blush got a little deeper for this part, " They said I didn't have to participate, but they thought it would be a great joke on you because you wouldn't ever expect it from me" Kurt looked at Sebastian and said, "something about payback for inviting yourself to their dorm room unexpectedly." Sebastian got a little embarrassed himself while thinking of that incident.

Sebastian looked up as Kurt cleared his throat before adopting a bit of a haughty look and continued with, "Well I always liked one-upping you so I filed into the waiting room, sat down and watched as someone proceeded to rush out of the office. Before I could get up another person came to the waiting room and walked into the office. I guessed that someone was sending people in so I settled back to wait. I'm sure Niff has already let your parents know that I'm back here." Sebastian sent Kurt a resigned nod and Kurt said, " I was quite amused when the next three people went through and rushed back out in a similar manner as the first person I saw, and I figured that you were being your usual delightful self."

Sebastian allowed himself a little smile as Kurt got red in the face before speaking again, " I already wanted to surprise you so I was determined that you weren't going to send me running as easily." Kurt cleared his throat again and looked away from Sebastian as he said, " Obviously I quickly found out your master plan and honestly I'm shocked I was surprised at all." Kurt obviously forced himself to look Sebastian in the eye as he snootily continued with, " I'm not some uptight virgin and it was worth the stupid look on your face."

Sebastian laughed as he replied, " Princess I think that was worth half of my bank account." Kurt quickly recovered himself and smiled at Sebastian, "trying to make me feel like a hooker Smythe? I already feel for the future of our friendship," drawled Kurt. Sebastian was definitely getting used to the idea of being friends with one Kurt Hummel. "We can save that for later if you want sweetheart, " Sebastian quickly replied.

Kurt was fast to shoot that down with, "Sorry meerkat, it was a once in a lifetime event, I'll reschedule you for when hell freezes over." Sebastian didn't think he could handle that and he decided that he was going to make Kurt his and maybe even have him help out with his current situation. He mused over this for awhile and then smirked at Kurt as he said, "Well I don't have to worry about your hobbit boyfriend getting in the way so maybe that cold snap is coming sooner than you thought."

Sebastian watched Kurt's face as it instantly clouded over and he tried to cover up his mistake by joking, " Just kidding princess you don't have to fear for your virtue." Kurt gave Sebastian a strained smile and stood up as he said," that's good to hear Smythe, I look forward to our no doubt trying future together, but I should get back to my apartment before Rachel and Santana start looking for me." 

Before Sebastian could stop him Kurt was walking out the door and he was stopped from following by the mess he still had to clean up on the desk and his pants. He let him go and sat back as he thought about he was going to get back into Kurt's good graces. He wanted to carry on with his new plan of seducing Kurt and getting him to help out with his current crisis. Hopefully after awhile he could tell Kurt his idea and they would be good enough friends for Kurt to agree to a marriage on paper. He figured they could both still have fun on the side, but it would sweeten the deal if they wanted to fool around with each other as well.

Sebastian got up and cleaned up the mess he in, he laughed to himself as he thought _'there's a metaphor in there somewhere'_. As he went to leave the office he had another stray thought _'I wonder if Kurt still isn't over the Blaine? I need to find out what happened with those two'_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay rewrite here, I said I would bash Blaine but i'm not going to do anything other than bash the relationship a little. Hope everyone is cool with the clarification. I dislike canon Klaine not Blaine necessarily.


	3. Questions from Friends

Kurt was tense as he made his way back to the apartment he shared with Santana and Rachel. _'I can't believe I didn't think about him bringing up Blaine. It's like our main connection with each other'_. Kurt was furious that Blaine was still making his life miserable. Sure it had only two months since the break up, but now that he shaken the blinders Kurt had decided that his relationship with Blaine had been bad probably from the start. Kurt was calmer by the time he reached his door, and once again promised to put the Blaine mess behind him and reclaim the fabulous Kurt Elizabeth Hummel he had abandoned when he started dating Blaine. He had talked about this with Rachel and Santana when he had finally moved past the misery of the break up. Surprisingly it was Santana who pointed out that when he and Blaine had gotten together it seemed like Kurt had changed a lot about himself so that Blaine could be more of a star. Kurt thought it said a lot about their relationship that he didn't feel comfortable being himself with Blaine and he knew that he needed to cut out that toxic part of his life.

Kurt brushed away his heavy thoughts and started thinking more about his potential friendship with Sebastian as he opened the door to the apartment. He looked up and saw Rachel and Santana watching TV on the couch. Rachel immediately jumped up and asked, "How was the party? I would absolutely die to go to a party at that hotel! Although I'm sure once I become a famous - -." "Shut up Broadway baby and let the man speak ," Santana cut in. Kurt chuckled to himself, he loved Rachel and her crazy, but he was definitely thankful Santana was there to balance it out. He dropped onto the couch with the girls and told them the general details about the party and seeing Jeff and Nick again.  
Finally Kurt took a dramatic breath and said, "And now the most exciting part of the evening, you will never guess who I ran into......Sebastian Smythe!"

Rachel provided the appropriate dramatic reaction and Santana simply looked at Kurt and asked, "Smarmy Warbler?, since when do you two get along?" "We buried the hatchet before school was over remember? Besides this is the first time I've seen him , but I thought I might run into him, because Niff told me the party was for him anyway," replied Kurt. Rachel narrowed her eyes at Kurt and said, "I don't think you mentioned that before Mr. Hummel." Kurt just shrugged his shoulders and said, "I didn't really want to say anything until I knew how our meeting went. I can say that while he is still very much the Sebastian we knew, he has thankfully tempered that a bit with friendlier behavior.  
Santana snorted and then smirked at Kurt, "I'm sure the singing twink was very friendly . I always thought that you two might have a little something going on. You were always more like your old self when you would throw down with him." Kurt rolled his eyes, "Trust me Satan I don't think that Sebastian and I are going to be walking off into the sunset together. I do think if he gets in contact with me that I might want to be friends. We kind of talked about it, and you're right I do like it when someone can keep up with me.

Santana and Rachel tried to pester him some more but he stood up and said, "enough of this for now we don't even know if he's going to even want to see me again. Plus I am extremely tired and I'm going to bed." Kurt walked off to his room, but before he shut the door he heard Santana tell Rachel, "It might be interesting to have Snarky boy around." "At least you'll have plenty of opportunity to mock him and come up with more nicknames," Rachel replied. Kurt smiled to himself and went to turn on his computer while he got dressed for bed. When he came back he logged into Facebook to see if Niff had posted anything about the party. He was pleasantly surprised to see the new notification, _you have (1) friend request from Sebastian Smythe_.

 

* * *

Sebastian had spent the rest of the party avoiding his parents who were sure to question how the meetings went, and looking for Jeff and Nick who were apparently trying to avoid him. He finally caught up with the devilish duo. He smiled as he snuck up behind them, "Well well look what I found!" He laughed as the pair jumped and looked at him with twin expressions of horror. Jeff was the first to try and divert his irritation, "Seb! hey hows it going? this party is pretty--" "great! the party is amazing Seb you need to try these snack thingies", finished Nick. Sebastian looked at them and crossed his arms, "I don't think so guys. Now why don't you tell me what you were thinking when you sent Hummel back to my den of tragedy?" Jeff sighed and looked at Sebastian, "Okay we thought it would be funny to drop someone unannounced on you after you walked in on us last week." Sebastian uncrossed his arms and smiled at them, "okay I guess were even now, and it was definitely surprising." Nick looked a little curious at his smiling friend, "So what happened with Kurtie? We didn't see him come back out." 

Sebastian looked a little guilty and said "Well after I got over the shock we actually started talking--" Jeff stopped him, "You mean you were both flinging insults at each other as usual." Sebastian scowled at him as he and Nick started laughing. He huffed and continued "hey it's kind of our thing and we were both enjoying ourselves. Anyway we were talking about putting the past behind us when I may have said something about him being free from the hobbit while he was in New York. Next thing I know he's saying see you later and walking out the door." Nick and Jeff took in the confused face of their friend and decided to give him a break. Jeff reached out and put a hand on Sebastian's shoulder, "Seb, you know Blaine and Kurt actually split up awhile ago. I don't know the details, but I think it was pretty rough since Kurt didn't really want to tell us about it." Sebastian looked guilty again, "oh I figured that they just decided they were better as friends. I never really saw much passion in their relationship with each other, but I wasn't really thinking when I said what I did either." "I'm sure he'll be fine Seb, maybe just be a little nicer if you're going to be friends with him," Nick said.

For the rest of the party Sebastian tried to enjoy himself, but he kept thinking about Kurt and his plan. _'I still want to know what happened to the "fairytale romance", but I'm going to need to take it slow if I want to get with Kurt'._ Conveniently Sebastian pushed aside any thoughts of being too concerned about this one person. By the time he escaped to his dorm room at NYU he was more determined to bring Kurt back into his life. _'I at least want another blow job out of this'_ , he laughed to himself. Sebastian figured even if Kurt didn't want to get sexy with him again, he could at least build a friendship with the boy and hope that he would agree to help him later on. As he looked Kurt up on Facebook and sent him a friend request, Sebastian was oblivious to how excited he was to be reconnecting with one Kurt Hummel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I decided this was going to be ten chapters. I also want to make a soundtrack for the story, with one song per chapter. I haven't decided what they'll be yet but, I will let you know. Thanks for reading and please keep commenting so I know if you like the direction I'm going. I welcome any ideas people have.


	4. Toe in the Water

Kurt didn't second guess himself as he clicked accept on Sebastian's friend request. As he got ready to do a little page stalking he chuckled quietly to himself and thought, ' _Why do I feel like I just started the strangest relationship of my life_?'  
He started clicking through some of Sebastian's pictures and did a little shameless ogling. ' _I still can't believe I gave him a blow job, but we are never going to get together, and it was a great opportunity to get some from a really hot guy_. He snorted, ' _not that I will ever tell him that_.'

As if the sneaky devil had heard him, Kurt suddenly had a chat window open from Sebastian.

**Sebastian:** hey princess you cyber stalking me?

**Kurt:** you invited me into your cyber life of your own free will I wouldn't call it stalking.

**Sebastian:** Ah so you are! Don't worry babe you'll find all the good shirtless pics soon.

Kurt had to look around and make sure there wasn't a hidden camera somewhere, because he had been checking his pictures out. He giggled at his own paranoia and turned back to his laptop.

**Kurt:** I try not to see you in real life, why would I subject myself to any visual of you if I didn't have to?

**Sebastian:** Because I'm hot ;)

**Sebastian:** And ouch princess! I thought we were going to be new gay best buddies and spout rainbows at each other?

**Kurt:** You're passable I suppose, and btw for someone who actually is gay, you actually sound slightly homophobic.

**Sebastian:** We'll have to meet up, because it will be much harder to argue my hotness in person. I'm sorry for the comment especially when I have chosen to embrace all the stereotypes you embody. 

**Kurt:** I think I've somehow gotten used to your particular humor meerkat. I suppose I can subject myself to the pain of seeing you in person.

**Sebastian:** Great there is this amazing coffee place on the NYU campus called Third Rail. Do you know it?

**Kurt:** Yes omg I love that place! How do we have our own coffee place now Sebastian?

**Sebastian:** I guess we're just destined to find each other in coffee shops princess. How about you meet me there on Monday? 

**Kurt:** Okay at 9?

**Sebastian:** Can't wait beautiful, now go dream about me.

**Kurt:** Please it wasn't worth a second lick never mind a second look Smythe.

_Kurt Hummel has logged off_

Sebastian sat there with his mouth open in shock. He shook it off and started laughing. ' _I'll remember to remind you of this later Kurt, we'll see who gets the last word_.'

* * *

Kurt found himself unusually excited as he waited outside the tiny coffee shop for Sebastian. There was just something about the other boy that kept drawing him in, and he had resigned himself to the difficulties of being a friend of Sebastian Smythe.  
"So princess can you agree that my hotness is better in person?" Kurt whirled around to face the man behind him. Sebastian stood there with his usual smirk and admittedly hot self. Kurt made a big deal of looking him up and down. "Actually you may want to only show people pictures of yourself, then you can rely on the wonders of Photoshop," Kurt replied.

Sebastian grinned and gestured for them to go in and get their coffee, "hmm I guess I'll have to try harder if I want you to change your mind about licking me again." Kurt couldn't stop the blush on his face and decided to be silent as he made his way into the coffee shop, with a chuckling Sebastian behind him.  
As they sat down outside with their drinks Kurt decided to turn the conversation back to Sebastian. He mindlessly stirred his drink as he looked at Sebastian, "So did you find a baby daddy at your party?" Kurt sported his own smirk as Sebastian choked on his drink and started laughing.

When he got a hold of himself Sebastian smiled back at Kurt and said, "I'm going to enjoy hanging with you princess, but to answer your question no I did not find my very own ball and chain. The party was really just a stupid tradition that my grandmother wanted me to go through with. It's all over with now and I'm back to being a free agent." ' _don't want him to suspect anything_ ', Sebastian thought to himself. "Don't worry beautiful we have all the time we need for you to start licking me again", Sebastian winked at Kurt.

Kurt did not look impressed, "Okay meerkat lets get one thing straight that was a once in a lifetime occurrence. I can be your friend, but I'm not going to be another one of your twenty-minute dream men." Sebastian raised his hand in a peace-keeping way, "okay Hummel relax, I'm willing to make nice and be friends."  
Kurt looked at him a little skeptically, but decided to let it go. ' _I need to remember that it's all a game to him, I doubt I could ever actually be in a relationship with him. It's better to stay friends._ ' For the next hour the two of them caught each other up on the general facts of their lives since graduation. Kurt didn't mention anything about Blaine and thankfully Sebastian never brought it up.

Finally Kurt looked at his phone and realized he was supposed to be having lunch with Rachel and Santana soon. "Okay Sebastian this has been surprisingly fun, but I need to go meet my girls. Text me when you want to meet up again."

Sebastian was a little disappointed that Kurt was leaving already, but forced a smile on his face. "all right princess I guess you shouldn't keep your ladies-in-waiting ... waiting." Kurt gave him a smile and a small laugh. Sebastian grinned for real this time as he got up to leave, "Next time we have to tell each other our favorite colors and everything if we're going to be buddies." 

This time Kurt snorted a little as he looked at Sebastian, "Well aren't you easy to please? I'm glad we will have the lifelong friendship bond of favorite colors and coffee shops to fall back on in hard times", Kurt snarked. He waved goodbye to Sebastian and went to see Rachel and Santana.  
Sebastian watched as Kurt walked away, ' _I can't wait until you can really please me, I'm looking forward to those "hard times_." '

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry shorter chapter this time. I'll try for an extra long one next week. We'll compress time a bit and get to the "my friends meet your friends and they realize we want each other bit" next time. Please comment if you want the extra long chappie. Comments feed my writing powers.


	5. Sometimes We Finish Before We Start

Kurt and Sebastian continued to meet up for coffee once a week and try to hold on to the strange friendship they had found. They found that without the weight of high school, they got along pretty well. However, Sebastian hadn't let go of his plan to use Kurt quite yet. He planned on letting Kurt know eventually, but he didn't see any harm in laying the ground work early.

Last weekend Sebastian's grandmother and parents had come to New York again to have dinner with him and discuss the party and any contacts he had made. Sebastian oh so casually let slip about how he was seeing a boy he had a meeting with at the party. His grandmother of course tried to grill him for details, but all he told her was that he was spending time with the son of representative  Burt Hummel.

Sebastian was sure that once he informed Kurt of his plan, they would both be grateful for the seed he had planted with his grandmother. She was very likely to be suspicious of Sebastian complying to her wishes. Plus Sebastian wanted time to work on Kurt and ease the two of them back into a physical relationship. He didn't want to have to go outside his own marriage for sex all the time.

Despite Sebastian's less than honorable motives, he found that he quite enjoyed becoming friends with Kurt Hummel. It only solidified his desire to have Kurt be his partner in crime. Sebastian planned on waiting until he and Kurt were comfortable enough to share almost anything, and then he would begin seducing his fair princess.

Sebastian was surprised when his plan was helped along by Kurt himself.

\--------

Kurt looked at Sebastian over the coffee he held in his hand and sighed. Sebastian looked at him with a little surprise and concern. "What's the matter princess? Your coffee do something to you?" Kurt tried to smile, but the topic he wanted to bring up wasn't exactly pleasant.  He gathered his considerable will power and looked Sebastian in the eye as he spoke, "I just think we should probably talk about something we've avoided ... well that I've avoided." Sebastian tried to say that he didn't have to talk about it, but Kurt held up his hand to stop him.

Kurt frowned a little in silence and said, "Look I appreciate how much of a friend you've become and I don't want to leave anything from the past hanging over that. I'm sure you're curious about this and I feel like I can trust you enough to tell you about him." Sebastian was a little shocked when he realized Kurt wanted to open up about Blaine. Kurt laughed and said, "okay meerkat that look on your face alone is worth talking about this. Sebastian gave Kurt his trademark smirk, "glad I could thrill you princess, but if it bugs you this much you don't have to tell me what happened with Blaine."

Kurt shrugged and replied, "I really don't want him to have power over me anymore, and I figured this would help me move on a little bit more." Sebastian just looked at him and gestured for him to continue. Kurt sighed again as he stared into his coffee cup instead of his new friend's gorgeous green eyes. "Well honestly the reason the whole Blaine situation bothers me still is that it could have been salvaged a while ago, and we were both to blame for that." Sebastian felt a little uneasy that Kurt felt he could save his relationship with Blaine. ' _I'm not going to let him have my princess without a fight_ '.

Kurt looked up again and noticed the frown on Sebastian's face, "Oh not to say that we could ever get back together. I'm pretty sure we've effectively burned that bridge." He chuckled a bit, "you won't be witnessing anymore of the Kurt and Blaine show." Sebastian smiled at Kurt and said, "good because I finally have you all to myself and I don't feel like sharing." Kurt blushed a bit and muttered, "whatever Seb, back to the story."

Kurt decided to try and relay the story as emotionlessly as possible, "I guess you don't know anything other than we did in fact break up." Sebastian nodded at him. Kurt put his head on his hand and looked down at the table for this next part,  "Well the beginning of the end was when he came to visit and informed me that he had cheated on me."  Sebastian was surprised to realize just how angry he was at the hobbit, despite the fact he had tried to entice him in the same manner. He looked at Kurt's head until Kurt lifted it and looked him in the eye. "Kurt I've told you I'm sorry about what I tried to get him to do back in school and I want you to know I truly meant that.  I think he's a complete bastard for doing this and I may even punch him if I ever see him again."

Kurt was a little shocked and a whole lot more flattered than he would ever mention. He gave Sebastian a sweet smile and patted the hand Sebastian had clenched around his coffee cup. "Don't concern yourself with him. I'm glad you want to defend me, but I'd rather you just left it alone and forgot about him. Also I know that you've changed I wouldn't be your friend if I hadn't seen that." Sebastian relaxed a little and smiled back at Kurt, "okay I'll let it go for you even if I do want to avenge the fair princess's honor."

 Kurt rolled his eyes and continued his story, "Okay well naturally I was pissed as hell when he told me and we had a huge and loud fight. Then we calmed down enough to have the talk we should have had a couple of years ago. The long and short of it is that we were more attached to the idea of being boyfriends, than we were to the reality of being boyfriends to each other." Sebastian was unsurprised and mentioned, "I always thought you guys didn't seem as lovey-dovey  as other couples I have seen." Kurt laughed a little sadly and said, "I guess the two of us were unwilling to see the truth of that."

Kurt gathered his slowly wavering willpower again to finish the story,  "we realized that we both had a hand in the point our relationship had come to. It doesn't excuse what Blaine did, but it's something that I wanted to avoid all the same. I think what I'm most sad about is our lost chance. We could have been really great as best friends, but we dated and let our problems and resentment build up. We both changed who we were and while that is more true for me, I think we both did too much damage to the other for us to ever go back.  I want to think that someday we can be some kind of friends again, because he was such a big part of my life, but right now I'm still trying to reclaim the Kurt I was before I was Blaine's Kurt.

Kurt sat back and started drinking his coffee again to indicate he was finished. He stayed quiet and avoided looking at Sebastian and seeing his reaction. He looked up when he heard Sebastian get out of his chair. For a second he irrationally thought that Sebastian had realized how pathetic he was and had decided to end their beginning friendship. He was therefore shocked when Sebastian brought his chair around to sit next to Kurt and wrapped his arm around Kurt's shoulders.

"Thank you for telling me, I know it was probably really hard to get it out, but you just reminded me of how strong you are as a person. I'll be the first person to admit that we all make mistakes in high school, but you're here now moving on and living in the greatest city in the world. You took a chance on someone you had only ever seen acting like a jackass and made friends with him. If someone asked me to describe you today I'd say that Kurt Elizabeth Hummel is a total badass, whip smart, crazy sexy, and an amazing friend."  Kurt didn't know if he wanted to laugh or cry. He settled for laughing a little wetly and hugging Sebastian. "Thank you Bas I'm so glad I have you in my life."

After they had calmed down a bit the two of them decided to return home, Sebastian very happy with how their friendship was progressing.  It wasn't until Kurt had returned to his apartment that he had his own startling revelation, ' _Oh god I think I'm a little bit in love with that boy_ '.

\---------

Immediately following his first insight Kurt realized he should keep it to himself. ' _For god sakes I just finished telling him what happened the last time I tried to move from friends to lovers_ '. No Kurt was going to ignore his errant thought and keep his friendship with the too gorgeous for his own good meerkat. With that plan of action decided he pushed it into the back of his thoughts and went to watch Santana and Rachel argue over the television.

Kurt and Sebastian continued to have their weekly coffees and it seemed that Kurt's mini-breakdown over Blaine had released some kind of barrier that had still existed between them. Kurt didn't think about his growing affection for Sebastian. He just enjoyed hanging out with someone who made him feel like his old yet slightly wiser self. For his part Sebastian was also pleased with how their friendship was going. He was more and more sure that Kurt would be the person who helped him with his scheme. They were quickly becoming each other's closest friend and Sebastian had also opened up to Kurt about his family and less than perfect relationship with his grandmother.

Sebastian of course didn't reveal his or his grandmother's future goals, but he figured by the time he told Kurt it wouldn't be as big a deal to the beautiful glasz-eyed boy. Everything would have been pretty close to perfect if it wasn't for one tiny detail. Kurt and Sebastian had a big threat to their peace looming over them. Something more terrifying than meeting the family or becoming more than friends.

Sebastian groaned and wiped a hand over his face during a lull in his conversation with Kurt. "What's your problem meerkat? Got a tummy ache?", Kurt cooed at Sebastian. Sebastian laughed and said, "I think we have the same problem princess. My friends want to hang out with you and your friends."  Kurt laughed too and replied, "Oh no that isn't a problem, because it will never happen. I can't even picture the havoc those four could wreak on us, and I don't want to."  Sebastian pouted in Kurt's direction, "aww princess are you ashamed of me?"  Kurt simply looked at Sebastian and said, "yes."

Thankfully Sebastian knew Kurt well enough to not be offended. "Well princess I was planning on asking you to come to a club with me anyway. I did want to go simply to watch you move those hips but, I suppose we could bring the rest of the gang along and get this over with."  "Oh god you're going to add alcohol to Santana? It will be worse than Gremlins", Kurt looked appropriately horrified at the possibility. Sebastian snorted a bit and said, "well I guess you'll just have to protect me beautiful." Kurt was suddenly sporting an evil smirk on his face, "Actually I think I will punish you by allowing this travesty to happen, and working my admittedly amazing hips that you will not be going home with, on the dance floor."  Sebastian smiled at Kurt and replied, "you know exactly how to hit a guy where it hurts princess, but eventually you will give in and I will win the fair maiden." Kurt rolled his eyes and made plans to go to the club with Sebastian and their entourage. As they left Sebastian whistled to himself and thought, ' _I will win you over Hummel that's a promise_ '.

\---------

The next thing Kurt knew he was outside the club Sebastian had found and ignoring the interrogation he was getting from the girls. "Come on Hummel you and the Disney villain have been getting buddy-buddy for weeks now. I think you should admit you wants to get on that ass," continued Santana. "Oh my gaga Satan for the last time we're just friends. I'm not going to make the same mistake I made with Blaine," Kurt bit out.  Santana raised her eyebrows at that and shared a look with Rachel. "So you are saying you might like wanky warbler?"  Kurt sighed and gave both girls his full attention, "okay yes I am attracted to him and I may like him _like that_ a little, but it's not enough to ruin our friendship, and it's really important to me to keep him as a friend. Please just be nice to him and the other two, because I'd really like us to all get along."

Rachel gave him a small hug and said, "don't worry Kurt we'll be on our best behavior." She ignored Santana's quiet, "my best isn't that good." She smiled at Kurt and said, "it is okay to like someone you're friends with. It's usually a good idea to be friends with the person you love. Besides you're older and wiser now you can't let your fear of the past ruin the future. Maybe Sebastian can be part of that if you give him the chance." Kurt hugged Rachel and shot Santana a smile, "Maybe you ladies have it right, but for now I'm just going to take this a step at a time." The three of them went to get in line for the club when all of a sudden they heard a loud wolf whistle.

"Well if it isn't the three sexiest ladies in New York," drawled Sebastian. "I don't know if the boys and I are in your league tonight my dears." Nick and Jeff came up behind Sebastian and pulled him out of the potential firing range. Nick smiled at them and said, "please ignore our friend we've tried to train his public behavior, but we couldn't find a strong enough mouth filter." Kurt and Rachel laughed and Santana just took it in stride, "don't worry about it, I think Kurt and Rachel will back me up when I say it's nice to be appreciated as the hot bitches we are."Nick laughed too and went to shake Santana's hand, "it's nice having other people who can tolerate Seb around, I'm Nick Duvall and this is Jeff Sterling, my boyfriend." Handshakes were exchanged between the couple and girls.

Then Sebastian's impatience made itself known, "well now that we're all acquainted I say we head in for our night of drinking and dancing. Kurt promised me a dance and I plan to collect." Kurt smiled his evil smile and said, "I do believe I said I would dance not that I would dance with you necessarily." Sebastian winked at Kurt and threw an arm around his shoulder as the group headed back to the line. The four new acquaintances could clearly hear him speaking in Kurt's ear, "But I like to get my punishment up close and personal sweetheart, it's how I learn." Kurt groaned and hid his face in his hands as he blushed.

For awhile the six of them hung out at a quieter table drinking and getting to know each other. Sebastian made sure that he apologized to both Santana and Rachel for his previous behavior. Santana waved him off saying she gave as good as she got, and Rachel exercised her newfound maturity and graciously said it was all in the past. After a couple hours of talking and a few mini-trips to the dance floor, Santana and Rachel were caught up in conversation with Jeff and Nick as they all shared some of their New York experiences. Kurt was looking at them fondly, glad that he had somehow managed to build a small family of friends in his dream city. Sebastian leaned over and whispered in his ear, "as much fun as it is hanging with our equally overbearing friends, I do believe I want my punishment now."

Kurt once again failed to control his blush and attraction to the man next to him. Sebastian chuckled and said, "god you look so gorgeous tonight, are you sure you don't want to come home with me princess? I'll give you a ride on my chariot." Kurt thought about his earlier conversation with the girls and resolved to let whatever would happen between he and Sebastian happen. That didn't mean he would let the smirky meerkat walk all over him. He wasn't the virgin baby penguin anymore and he needed to remind Sebastian of that. Kurt got up from the table and yanked Sebastian to his feet. He turned to the other four and said, "Sebastian and I are going to dance for awhile, " and walked away dragging his friend towards the dance floor.

Santana watched the two of them walk away and then turned back to the other three, "Okay now am I  the only one who thinks those two are close to throwing each other down and getting busy?" Jeff laughed and said, "Nick and I have suspected that Sebastian might have feelings for Kurt since that party they re-met at." Rachel had that scheming look on her face, "should we do anything to help them along?"  Santana surprisingly was the voice of reason, "no believe me those two are going to implode without our help. I say we sit back and wait for our opportunity to mock them when it comes." Nick lifted his glass to toast to that and said, "Santana I do believe the four of us will get along just fine." The other three raised their glasses as well and sat back to enjoy themselves until their friends returned.

Meanwhile Kurt was making good on his promise to punish Sebastian.  Sebastian was actively fighting to keep his hands to himself as he watched Kurt swing his hips to the thumping beat. Kurt was walking sex in his impossibly tight skinny jeans and heeled boots. For once Sebastian wasn't thinking of his scheme, he simply wanted to be all over his personal wet dream. Kurt was also having trouble controlling himself. Dancing for Sebastian made him feel incredibly sexy and he liked the almost predatory look in his eyes. Throwing caution to the wind he decided to ramp up his teasing and reached up to put his hands around Sebastian's neck, letting the other man have a little contact with his still swaying hips.

"Mmm Bas have you learned your lesson yet?," Kurt cooed into the other man's ear. Kurt jumped a little when he felt a pair of hands grab his hips and pull him into the body in front of him. Sebastian leaned down to do his own whispering in to Kurt's ear, "you're playing with fire princess, I don't know how much longer I can keep us from going up in flames." Kurt gasped as Sebastian ground his half hard cock into Kurt's. Kurt decided he wanted to make things perfectly clear for Sebastian. He leaned up and captured Sebastian's mouth for a long passionate kiss. When he pulled back he smiled at the stunned look on Sebastian's face, "I think we'll avoid the flames tonight, because I promised to punish you, but I think things are about to get real hot soon Bas." Kurt turned and walked off the dance floor and Sebastian quickly regained control of himself and wrapped an arm around Kurt's waist as they made their way back to their friends. He stopped Kurt before they had reached their table and said, "I'll call you tonight so we can arrange that fire of ours princess." Kurt nodded his acceptance and the two of them went to collect their friends and return home.

\-------

Sebastian's happiness didn't last as long as he hoped. The next morning he received a call from his grandmother to come meet her for breakfast.  He reluctantly agreed to the meeting and soon found himself in a tiny upscale cafe with the only woman he despised.  His attitude towards her quickly turned to outright loathing as she explained that she had done some background research on Kurt. She made it clear that despite their shared interest in an alternative lifestyle, she found Kurt to be acceptable enough. She expressed her doubts that Sebastian could hold on to him with his easy nature, but she wished him luck. Sebastian left their meeting torn between fury at his grandmother's  prejudice and interference and relief that his plan was working.

Sebastian wasn't happy when he returned to his dorm room to find his friends waiting to tease him about his upcoming date with Kurt. He felt  a weird combination of anger, happiness, and a small amount of guilt. In other words he was easy to crack. "Okay Seb you need to tell us what is going on with you and your grandmother lately," Jeff begged. Sebastian tried to  put them off, but eventually he caved and told them about his grandmother's plan to make him jump through hoops for his trust fund. Nick was confused and asked, "what does this have to do with Kurt?" 

Sebastian dropped his face into one of his hands before he started to tell them his plan. He missed the looks of shock on their faces and was oblivious as he said, "all right so when I ran into Kurt at the party I came up with a plan to become friends with him and then seduce him before asking him to be my husband on paper. I figured by then he would be happy to help me out and we could have an open relationship while we maintained a marriage that would get us access to my trust fund. We could sleep with each other or other people and we'd share the money and live happily ever after the end." Sebastian lifted his head up and mistook the look on Nick and Jeff's faces for disappointment. "Don't worry I'm going to explain all of this to Kurt," he said.

"Oh don't worry I think I got the jist of it Sebastian," came a cold voice from behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes! its the super long chappie! Wow this was a rough one guys. I'm not entirely sure where we'll go from here but as always I welcome your comments and suggestions. **Comments feed me and equal long chappies**


	6. Is it Worth it?

Sebastian felt the weight of Kurt's stare on his back and sudden dread kept him from meeting those icy eyes. Nick and Jeff rose from Sebastian's bed and shot their friend a stricken look. "Jeff and I are just going to go and let you two work this out," Nick said hopefully. Sebastian didn't hear Kurt say anything as he listened to his two friends walk out and shut the door behind them.

 

He sighed and drew together his flagging courage as he turned and sat down on his bed. He slowly dragged his eyes up to meet Kurt's. "I guess I can't say you misheard what I said can I?" The look on Kurt's face hadn't been too hostile before, but Sebastian almost shrank away from the sudden fury on the beautiful boy's face.

 

Kurt glared at Sebastian as he spoke in a tone of restrained anger, "Do you really want to manipulate me anymore Sebastian? I think you need to consider whether or not I'm worth your honesty. It didn't sound like you were very willing to give it to me, and if you can't be honest now then I don't think we have anything left to say."

 

Sebastian raised his hands in a peace keeping way and hurried to correct Kurt's assumption. "Kurt you didn't hear everything I was going to say. I would've have told you everything. I just wanted us to have our date before potentially ruining everything."

 

"Oh I heard the part about wanting in my pants before you came clean. So sorry that I can't oblige the great Sebastian Smythe," Kurt spit through gritted teeth. Sebastian jumped up and tried to put his hands on Kurt's shoulders, but Kurt jerked away and said, "Don't you dare!"

 

Sebastian backed away and caught Kurt's eye, "Kurt it wasn't going to be like that I swear! I had changed my mind about the stupid plan and I just wanted us to have a little more time before I broke us."  Kurt huffed and pinned Sebastian in place with his glare, "Just when did you change your mind about this idea of yours? After you realized I heard you talking about it maybe?"

 

Sebastian shook his head frantically and said, "No! I admit that I didn't start thinking about until today, but I planned on telling you about everything and asking you to help me as a friend. I just wanted us to have our chance at more I guess."

 

Kurt looked at Sebastian incredulously, "I'm not sure what's going on here and I don't think you do either."  Kurt raised his hand and stopped Sebastian from interrupting, "I'm too angry right now to discuss this, but we're adults now and we are going to work through this rationally." Kurt turned away and headed for the door.

 

He looked back at Sebastian as he reached for the handle, "I'm going to give us time to cool down so we can talk about this, because I have to believe that you haven't been faking everything this whole time. You need to figure out what's going on in your head and we can figure it out from there. I can't let you break my heart and you've already come too close."

 

Kurt blushed a bit As he accidently said the last part and Sebastian wished he hadn't said it either. It made everything feel so much worse. He watched Kurt leave numbly and collapsed on his bed as he tried to find a way out of this mess.

________________________________________________________

For a week Kurt tried to put Sebastian out of his mind. It shouldn't have been difficult, he did have a very demanding internship and school schedule to attend to. Throwing himself into his work helped a little and he always got a thrill by attending classes at FIT. Somehow he still found time to think about his meerkat and wonder if he was too late to save himself from another heartbreak.

Sebastian on the other hand did think about Kurt all week and the situation he was in. He had told Kurt the truth when he said that his plan had been making him feel guilty. No matter how he turned it over in his head he still thought it was a great idea to have Kurt's assistance in the situation. He had time before his 21st birthday of course to find someone. but he felt like he'd been drawn to Kurt for a reason.

He started his relationship with Kurt for selfish reasons, but he had genuinely felt they had become friends and were possibly headed to something more.  ' _I probably screwed up the something more part of this. Whatever it's not like I know how to be a boyfriend anyway. I'll just stick to the open marriage idea_.'  The day before their regular coffee meeting Sebastian sent Kurt a message asking him to please show up as usual. He felt better  once he had a positive reply.

_________________________________________________________

When Kurt found Sebastian at their usual table his stomach fluttered a bit, ' _Oh please let this go well, let him have a good explanation_.' He bypassed their usual hug and simply sat down and waited for Sebastian to start talking. They just sat and looked at each other for a bit before Sebastian launched them into conversation with, "I just want to say I'm sorry Kurt."

 

Kurt felt his heart drop and it confirmed for him that he was way too invested in this man. He tried to stay calm and look Sebastian in the eye as he said, "Please explain to me what is going on here, so I know why you need to apologize. He watched as Sebastian collected himself, but refused to make eye contact with Kurt as he started to talk.

 

Sebastian explained more of his tempestuous  relationship with his grandmother. He told Kurt about his agreement to be married by his 21st birthday or engaged for at least a year by that time. Kurt asked him what the agreement was for specifically and why this arrangement was agreed to by him or his grandmother.

 

"Grandmother has never approved of me or my  ' _easy lifestyle_ ', I guess she felt that this would curb my more freewheeling tendencies and make me as respectable as possible for a gay grandson."  Sebastian finally made eye contact with Kurt when he heard Kurt make a derisive scoffing noise. He gave Kurt a small smile and continued.

 

"Specifically the agreement means I will gain control of my trust fund and officially be free of any 'legal' need to jump through any more of my grandmother's hoops. I figured that I could get around the whole thing by finding someone I could be friends and lover with while maintaining an open marriage," Sebastian finished. Kurt wasn't quite sure what to think yet so he asked, "Okay I understand your reasoning somewhat, by why me?  Were you just pretending to become friends with me for your little scheme? "

 

Sebastian looked a little uncomfortable as he replied, "Well at first I thought you'd be a perfect fit for this seeing as you're connected more because of your dad. I also wanted to get to know you more after the party, so I guess I both needed you for the scheme and I truly wanted to be friends with you." Kurt looked at Sebastian suspiciously, "So you absolutely weren't being fake during all of these coffee meets of ours?"

 

Sebastian smiled at Kurt and said, "No I was absolutely myself with you and honestly after awhile the whole thing usually slipped to the back of my mind. I consider you to be one of the closest people to me on the planet."  Kurt gave Sebastian a small smile for the comment and replied, "Well I think you're one of the closest people I have in my life as well. I didn't want this whole thing of ours to be a lie."

 

Sebastian reached a hand across the table and smiled when Kurt grasped his hand immediately.  "Kurt do you forgive me? I want us to be okay again." Kurt blushed a little and smiled back at Sebastian, "It might take me a little while to trust this yet, but I don't want to lose you from my life." Sebastian let go of his hand after squeezing it once and said, "don't worry princess you're stuck with me now. So are you going to agree to be my queen?"

 

Kurt felt his rising goodwill towards Sebastian vanish, "Excuse me? What the hell are you talking about?" Sebastian looked at Kurt in confusion, "well now that we're good, you're going to help me right? I figure we pretty much screwed up the sex part of this relationship, but we could still have the open marriage and I would share my trust with you so you wouldn't have to worry about anything. You could plan a big ceremony if you wanted and after a few years we could get a divorce and my grandmother couldn't say anything about it. I would give you a great settlement of course and we could just be one of those couples that stay friends after breaking up. Also--"

 

Sebastian stopped his babbling mid sentence as he took in the rage on Kurt's face, "umm Kurt what's wrong?"  "Are you kidding me Smythe? You're still stuck on this idiotic plan of yours and I'm supposed to be okay with it? Why the hell do you need your trust so badly anyway? Aren't your parents loaded?" Sebastian tried to refrain from making any sudden movements as he replied to Kurt, "Yes they are wealthy and they help me out a lot but I plan to eventually go into business for myself and I need this to get started and keep me taken care of for awhile. I don't want to be a burden on my parent's goodwill forever."

 

Kurt took in a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. Before he could address this bit of insanity Sebastian  opened his mouth again, "Kurt I promise we can do whatever you want to make yourself feel comfortable with this. I turn twenty next month and we'd have a year to get used to things before we got married. I just feel like you're the one I should do this with, I trust you more than pretty much anybody else."

 

Kurt felt himself soften a little, he was reminded that he couldn't just rage and scream like an overdramatic teenager anymore. He knew that he and Sebastian had been headed towards something amazing before this situation had reared its ugly head. It was time to get everything out in the open now. "Sebastian I'm going to tell you what I want and I need you to be honest with me as well, all cards on the table now."

 

Kurt waited until Sebastian nodded his head nervously, "Okay first of all I appreciate that you still want to go through with this with me, and I think I know why - -", Sebastian interrupted " Yeah because we're friends princess and I trust you like I said."  Kurt huffed a little and continued, "Yes well we were also heading to something more than friends weren't we? I seem to recall some promises made in the dark of a club last week."

 

Sebastian looked away from Kurt and replied, "Yeah well it's obvious that we're hot for each other princess and maybe that made me think we could give the whole dating thing a try. Obviously that isn't me though. I can't do the boyfriend thing right, and I'm sure I'd be a horrible fake husband, but I would try with you because we're friends and I don't want to hurt  you --" he stopped as he heard Kurt chuckling.

 

"Oh meerkat I'm positive that sometimes we're going to hurt each other, maybe not on purpose, but snark is kind of the default setting for our relationship. " Kurt sighed and tried to show Sebastian how serious he was, "Bas you might not want to hear this and I certainly don't want to admit it, but I think I'm falling in love with you and I think maybe you have strong feelings for me too." Kurt felt his stomach drop a little when Sebastian just stared at him blankly.

 

Kurt decided to be brave and continue, "despite all of the drama this idea of yours caused, I think that we were learning to be good together and I believe that we could have something wonderful together if you were willing to believe in it. I've seen the real you since we reconnected and that person is strong, amazing, and capable of maintaining a real relationship."

 

Kurt stopped Sebastian as he started to shake his head, "No it's true and you need to realize that. I'm going to go again because you need more time to think about this. Just so you know, this is me rejecting your offer to be your fake husband. I want to be the very real person you're in love with, who loves you back. I think you need to re-negotiate this agreement with your grandmother as well, but that's all I'll say about it."

 

Kurt stood up from the table and walked over to his clueless meerkat, "If you don't decide to give us a chance without conditions I think we can still work our way back to friends, but I'm hoping you want more from me and yourself."  Kurt dropped a kiss on Sebastian's speechless mouth and looked into his gorgeous green eyes, "I need to know if you're going to fight for love or money and I want you to make a choice you can live with."

 

Once again Sebastian watched as Kurt Hummel walked away from him and with all of his spinning thoughts only one thing stood out, ' _for love or money?_ '

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow another long chappie! And the story title worked itself in there :) So is Sebastian going to throw it all away for love? Will he stick to what he knows best and make the dough? Or is there a compromise to be had? Please comment and make me the happiest girl in the world!


	7. Sudden Realizations

                Kurt and Sebastian spent almost three weeks apart after their last meeting. Mid-terms had arrived for both of them and they weren't anything to sneeze at.  Kurt had sent Sebastian a short message asking him to arrange their usual coffee meet when Sebastian felt ready to make a decision about their relationship.

Even the grueling pressure of exams couldn't keep the pair of them from thinking about each other and their possible future relationship. Kurt felt that he could eventually be friends with Sebastian if his meerkat decided against a romantic future for the two of them. He knew it would be difficult, but he didn't want to destroy another great friendship like he had with Blaine.

Sebastian on the other hand struggled to come to terms with everything Kurt had admitted to him and implied about Sebastian's own feelings. He eventually began resenting Kurt a little for complicating things, even if he could admit he had a part in it as well. Most of the time he tried to think of ways to get Kurt to agree to his plan regardless and maybe fake the whole romance thing awhile. Sometimes he felt guilty, but he tried to brush that away, and he wouldn't even consider going to his grandmother to renegotiate. God knows what she could manage to demand of him this time!

As for the four friends of the troubled duo, they had decided that eventually someone was going to need to make one of the pair see reason. Rachel and Santana volunteered to make Sebastian that person and despite loyalty to their friend Nick and Jeff had to agree.  The two boys promised an intervention on behalf of their friend once mid-terms were over.

____________________________________________

                Sebastian almost sprinted to his room to start his first weekend after exams. He was going to celebrate life and hopefully get his princess to see reason. Feeling lighter than he had in three weeks, Sebastian didn't notice his two deviant friends sitting on his bed.  He had set his bag down and flicked on his light when a cleared throat sounded behind him.

"Hello Sebastian," said a grim-faced Nick.  Sebastian calmed his racing and heart and took in the equally depressing look on Jeff's face. "What's wrong you guys? Is someone hurt? Did something happen to my family? Your family? Oh god is it Kurt? Is he in the hospi - -", Sebastian's panicked rambling was cut off by Nick raising his hands and moving off the bed towards him.

"No!  No Sebastian everyone is all right! We just need to talk to you about something serious. Please come in and shut the door,"  Nick asked. Sebastian couldn't quite shake a lingering worry for whatever it was his friends wanted to speak about. He turned and shut his door and joined his friends, who had rearranged themselves on his bed.

Jeff looked at Sebastian and said, "Okay Bas you're not going to want to talk about this and we understand that. We let this go because of mid-terms, but now it's time for the situation to be resolved." Sebastian shot his friend a confused look and turned to the other as Nick sighed. Nick looked him in the eye and said, "We need to talk about Kurt Sebastian, and we aren't leaving until we help you figure this out."

_______________________________________________

                Three hours later a slightly happier Niff made their way out of their emotionally stunted friend's room.  Jeff squeezed Nick to his side and said, " I think it's going to be all right with those two Nicky. It might be hard because of Seb's grandma, but I think they're going to work it out." Nick leaned up and kissed his boyfriend, "I think you're right Jeffrey my love, now let's call the girls and let them know how it went," Nick replied.

The two men went to their dorm room and dialed Santana's cell. She picked up after the second ring and they put her on speakerphone. Santana's throaty drawl came through the speakers, "What can Satan do for her two favorite sidekicks? Hold on let me put you on speaker, it's just me and Berry tonight." Nick decided to speak up, "We have just completed a very successful intervention with our extremely slow friend." The men heard Rachel's voice float out of the phone, "Oh no I knew we should've tried harder to make him stay Santana!"

Jeff spoke this time, "What's going on Rachel, is something wrong with Kurt?" Santana breathed heavily over the speaker and replied, "He's out celebrating the end of mid-terms with someone from his sewing school. He'll be fine, Hummel knows how to handle himself and we have his back if he can't." They heard Rachel pipe up, "I just didn't like the looks of him, and you heard Kurt he said something about being with someone who wanted to fight for him! He thinks Sebastian's given up on him!"

Jeff sighed as well and said, "These two idiots have the worst timing!" He heard Santana chuckle and say, "why don't you let us know what went down with chipmunk. We'll need ammunition if we're going to save Hummel from himself."  Nick took over and started talking, "well it didn't go well at first, because Sebastian wanted to refuse that he was a real boy, capable of emotions and relationships."

The two men were surprisingly interrupted by a harsh "idiot!" from miss Rachel Berry. Nick smiled and continued, " After eons of talking around the real issue, we decided to get mean with him. We asked him if he could handle the reality of being friends with Kurt and springing his plan on another unsuspecting victim, or manipulating Kurt into his scheme in the hopes that they would eventually be all right with each other."

Jeff took over the explanation, " He didn't look exactly pleased with either of those, but we weren't finished. We asked him to ignore the issue of his trust fund and evil grandmother. I asked him if he could handle being friends with Kurt and letting someone else be his boyfriend and future husband." The girls heard Nick giggle and say, "You should've seen the look on his face! He was absolutely pissed at that idea! In fact he actually burst out with and I quote ' _Nobody could appreciate Kurt like me!_ ' . The look on his face after he realized what he said was even better!"

Jeff smiled at his hyper boyfriend and continued, "I looked at him and told him that he knew what the most important part of this situation was, everything else would work itself out." Nick took over again and said, "after that he said he needed to think a little before he spoke to Kurt. Actually he may be headed over there now!" Nick looked at his boyfriend worriedly, "I don't know how he'd take seeing Kurt with some other guy, he just decided to risk his player lifestyle and potential fortune for him!"

Santana was quick to hush the other two," I don't think you need to worry, Kurt is normally pretty reasonable and he'll fight to make sure they work things out. Besides this Brad Powell guy he went with has been strictly friend-zoned by Hummbelina until tonight, and he won't drink enough to forget that." Santana and Rachel heard silence on the other end and then the strained voice of Nick came over the line, "What did you say the guy's name was?"  Before the guys could hear the girls confirm their suspicions the sound of knocking on a door and Sebastian's voice could be heard in the background.

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                Sebastian clenched his hands over his knees as he waited impatiently for the cab to reach the club holding his Kurt hostage with a man perfectly capable of sexual assault. He was disappointed to hear that Rachel and Santana had let Kurt celebrate the end of exams with some guy from his school. He had taken a deep breath and said, " that's okay he's upset with me, but I'll do everything I can to work things out I promise." He had taken another look at the girls and noticed the phone in Santana's hand and the tense look on the girl's faces.

Sebastian felt his heart leap to his throat as he asked, "Who are you talking to and what's happened?" Santana shot a worried look to Rachel and said, "we were getting the deets on your little breakthrough earlier and the wonder twins just freaked out over the name of the guy Kurt went with tonight." Sebastian felt icy all over, why would Nick and Jeff be concerned about this guy?

He looked at Santana and demanded, "What is this guy's name and where did they go?" Rachel spoke up and said, "Brad Powell, they went to that new place all the colleges got flyers for today. What's wrong with --" Sebastian cut her off and said, " I'm going to get him. Wait here and Niff will explain it to you." Santana began to grasp the situation and she walked over to get in Sebastian's face, "You bring him back and never let him go you understand me Smythe? " Sebastian gave the Latina a grave nod and went to hail a cab.

Sebastian had never felt as terrified as he did now. Brad Powell was part of the same social circles as Sebastian's parents and there were many whispered complaints about him from guys and girls that never saw the light of day because of his status. Sebastian hadn't known that he attended the same school as Kurt. He only knew he had been in town, when he saw Brad at Sebastian's disastrous party. Sebastian could only hope that Brad wouldn't have had enough time to truly hurt Kurt and tried to ignore the knowledge that the threat of Brad's action's would be enough to hurt Kurt.

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Sebastian strode towards the front of the club quickly when he arrived. He heard a pained yell at the side of the club and ran to the alley it came from, fear and adrenaline pumping in his veins. When he came to the two men in the alley he began to chuckle, "I hoped I was going to rescue the princess tonight. You always ruin my fun Hummel."

Kurt looked away from the unconscious and bloody man at his feet. He eyed Sebastian with a lot of surprise and replied automatically, " it's the 21st century meerkat, princesses rescue themselves. And why are you here?" Sebastian smiled hugely at the beautiful and strong man before him and said simply, "I wanted to find the man I love and beg him to stay with me for the rest of our lives." Sebastian wasn't ashamed to admit that he enjoyed the stunned look on Kurt's face way too much. His princess rallied back though and threw up the infamous ice bitch extraordinaire wall, " well I'm sorry it looks like I damaged him a little."

Sebastian chuckled and swept Kurt into his arms, "that filth doesn't even come close to the man I want to keep beside me and never let go." Kurt didn't struggle, but he also wasn't going to melt into the arms of the man who had way too much power over his happiness. Kurt pulled away and began walking out of the alley, "well you can tell me all about this man and how you know the idiot back there in a cab out of here."

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Sebastian happily followed Kurt and hailed a cab back to his dorm room. He sent messages to their friends explaining what happened and told Kurt about his epiphany from earlier and everything he had heard about Powell. He drew Kurt into his room and sat him at the desk chair while he faced Kurt from the bed.

Kurt eyed Sebastian once again and said, " I want to believe you Bas, but how do I know you're not manipulating me again for your stupid trust fund." Kurt couldn't let himself believe Sebastian's words yet, no matter how much he wanted them.

Sebastian looked Kurt in the eye and said, "Kurt I don't care about the trust any more. I'll tell my grandmother she can do what she wants with it. If I have to work my ass off for a while in order to fund my business I'll do it happily and be grateful, because all I want is to be a man worthy of your love and friendship." Sebastian's heart broke a little when Kurt's eyes welled up and he started saying, "I'm not worth it Bas. You should find somebody who won't make you throw everything away. I'm too selfish, too --"

Sebastian stopped Kurt and pulled Kurt and the desk chair between his knees. He brought his hands up to wipe away the tears from beautiful glasz eyes. He waited until Kurt had calmed down a little and said, "You can't talk that way about the man I love. I didn't realize how important he had become to me until tonight and I can't let you stomp all over my brand-new happy rainbow feelings."

Kurt let out a short laugh and Sebastian continued, " You are so strong and beautiful Kurt. You're an amazing friend and I'm sure you'll make any man you choose to be with happier than he could ever be without you. I just want you to forgive my stupidity and slowness to realize this and choose me to be the man you keep with you. I'll try and show you in as many ways as possible that I mean it when I say I love you. You were so right when you said we could have something amazing together and I finally believe that . So please Kurt Elizabeth Hummel will you be my princess, my best friend, and the man I love who loves me back?"

Kurt smiled a watery smile at Sebastian. He pulled his meerkat in close and whispered, "Yes and I love you  too." Sebastian's smile was a bit watery as well, as he yanked Kurt onto his lap and proceeded to worship the mouth of the man who owned his heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special cookies to AngelTalion for the suspenseful plot device in this chapter. Next chappie will deal with the boys settling into this brave new world of theirs and dealing with naysayers (looking at you grammie!). I shall also introduce the almighty first time smut.


	8. Stronger Together than We are Apart

Sebastian and Kurt spent the rest of their night alternating between making out and discussing their future together. They also took a break to make calls to each of their friends, informing them that they were working things out and would start handling the rest of the world the next day. The four appeased friends decided to let their boys run their lives without interference for a little while.

After finishing the calls Sebastian turned to Kurt and pulled the boy into his arms, as they reclined back on Sebastian's  bed. Kurt buried his face in Sebastian's neck and giggled a bit. "Sebastian Smythe is a cuddle slut, who knew, " teased Kurt.  Sebastian just gave Kurt an overtly superior look and said, "I'm re-charging my supply of Kurt love."

Kurt rolled his eyes at his smug meerkat, "you are such a cheesy dork Smythe."  Sebastian grinned at Kurt and replied, "don't act like you don't love it princess."  Kurt grumbled and reburied his face in Sebastian's neck, "doesn't mean it's not true, " he mumbled.  Sebastian laughed  and then felt himself get a little more somber. "Kurt about tomorrow - -," Sebastian started to speak and was quickly cut off.

"Bas I don't want to talk about that anymore I just want to cuddle with you and go to sleep. Can we please just try and enjoy our new ' _us_ ' for now and deal with the rest tomorrow," begged Kurt.  Sebastian felt his tension loosen slightly as he snuggled with his boyfriend, ' _god I hope I make a good boyfriend. If I screw this up we'll never be able to handle everything else._ ' He didn't let Kurt know about his inner ramble. Sebastian just whispered, "night princess, I love you." Sebastian smiled as a sleepy Kurt instantly replied, "love you too meerkat."  Sebastian only hoped that Kurt continued to feel he was worth loving.

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The next day Sebastian talked a reluctant Kurt into reporting the actions of Brad Powell to the police. "Bas he didn't even get a chance to do anything. Besides I feel like I kind of led him on when I demanded we go out together, " Kurt tried to explain.  Sebastian stopped Kurt outside of the police station. "Okay you need to stop this stupidity right now. No one ever has the right to force you to do something against your will like that. Unless you actually did want him, he had no right to touch you. Understand ?" Sebastian hugged a teary Kurt who was nodding a little jerkily and walked with his boyfriend into the station.

Luckily they were able to make their report to a non-homophobic officer. The officer listened to Kurt's story and what Sebastian admitted were rumors of Brad's behavior. The officer smiled softly at the two young men and was glad to give them a little relief. "Actually Mr. Powell was picked up last night for public intoxication and assault of a police officer. He won't be skating away from trouble so easily this time, despite his family. Also if he ever harasses another person and they decide to report it we will have your  statement on record. Even without proof your statement would make us weigh the situation a little more heavily,"  finished the officer.

Kurt and Sebastian left the station feeling a little lighter. Kurt threw his arms around Sebastian and kissed him passionately. Kurt stopped after a while realizing that his boyfriend wasn't returning his fervor. "Sebastian what is the matter? Are you mad at me for this? Do you not want me anymore --?" Sebastian cut Kurt off and kissed his boyfriend lightly before replying, "No love I don't think I'll ever not want you and I told you this whole situation wasn't your fault. I just don't want to rush the physical stuff with you right now, especially after what happened. " Kurt scoffed a bit and put his hands on his hips as he turned and walked away from his clueless boyfriend.

Kurt smiled when he heard Sebastian rush to catch up with him. He stopped his boyfriend before he could say anything, "be quite for a minute Bas. We're going to talk about this at our coffee place."  Sebastian gave Kurt a slightly worried smile and grasped the hand his boyfriend held out to him. They made their way to their favorite place in silence. Amused on Kurt's part and tense on Sebastian's.

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As they sat down with their coffee Kurt looked into the worried eyes of his boyfriend and reached across the table to pat Sebastian's hand. "Don't worry so much meerkat, I just want to straighten some things out for you at a place that's special to us and our relationship." Sebastian nodded and Kurt noticed the tension finally leave his love's shoulders.

Kurt sipped at his coffee for a bit and waited for Sebastian to feel relaxed enough to do the same. "Do you remember the night I sucked you off?" asked a devilish looking Kurt. Kurt laughed as Sebastian choked on his coffee. Sebastian glared at his giggling boyfriend, "not funny princess!" Kurt chuckled a little more and replied, "Yes well I do have a point Bas. As I've said before I'm not such an innocent baby penguin anymore. I sucked you off the first time we had re-met, because I'm fully comfortable with myself sexually, and well you are pretty nice looking, "Kurt trailed off.

Sebastian smirked at his flustered boyfriend, "nice to know how much you wanted me babe. Although you're right, you did prove that already when you made my cock your lollipop." Kurt snorted at the return of his innuendo laden boyfriend, "that's better Bas, you don't need to walk on eggshells around me. Yes I'm angry at Powell, but honestly he didn't mean much to me and he never stood a chance against me. I know how to defend myself. I'm perfectly willing to put this behind me and consider it resolved."

Sebastian looked at Kurt a little sheepishly, " I forgot a little that I don't need to treat you with kid gloves when it comes to stuff like this." Sebastian smiled again and Kurt watched as Sebastian's eyes turned darker. "Besides I'm all too willing for you to make good on some promises you made me at that club last month, " Sebastian purred.

Kurt leaned forward and decided to show the meerkat  that he could seduce as well, " I do recall telling you that we needed to act like the adults we are now."  Kurt leaned even closer and licked the lips of his sexy boyfriend. As he leaned back into his chair he smirked at the predatory look on Sebastian's face and said, "that doesn't mean we can't take the time to play occasionally."

Sebastian growled and stood up from their table. He walked around and pulled Kurt up and into his arms. "Oh we are going to have so much fun princess, " Sebastian whispered against Kurt's lips. They quickly decided to abandon their coffee and head back to Sebastian's dorm.

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As soon as the door closed to his dorm room Sebastian found himself pushed against it. He moaned as Kurt began to attack his neck while the porcelain-skinned  beauty unbuttoned his boyfriend's clothes. Sebastian felt a little breathless when he was suddenly standing only in his jeans with his incredibly sexy boyfriend kneeling before him.

He smirked a little as Kurt pulled out his aching cock and he recalled a long ago remark Kurt had made. "Well beautiful, Sebastian Jr. got his second look does that mean he gets a second lick?" Kurt laughed as he remembered what he said to Sebastian at their first coffee date. He looked up at his gorgeous boyfriend and decided to shut his snarky man up. "You're right I should stand by what I said," Kurt laughed again as his boyfriend looked a little desperate.

Before Sebastian started begging him Kurt grabbed his boyfriend's cock and whispered, " that's why I'll do this instead." Kurt sucked Sebastian's cock as far down his throat as he could. He enjoyed hearing Sebastian turn into a moaning sexy mess.  Kurt reluctantly pulled off when Sebastian started pulling at his hair. Sebastian yanked Kurt up and over to his bed and made short work of his sexy princess's clothes.

Sebastian's cock twitched as he looked down at the gorgeous boy spread naked before him. He crawled over Kurt after kicking his jeans off. He leaned down and looked into the breathtaking glasz eyes of his boyfriend, " I'm going to worship you Kurt, " Sebastian said in a strained whisper. Kurt wrapped his arms around Sebastian's neck and pulled him down on top of him. They both gasped when their naked bodies connected.

Kurt ground their cocks together and sucked on Sebastian's tongue. he was starting to feel pretty desperate himself, so he pulled back and moaned, " I want you to fuck me Bas."  Sebastian groaned and replied, "right after I worship you baby." Sebastian proceeded to make his way down Kurt's body and touch and kiss every new inch of Kurt he came in contact with.

He licked a long strip along Kurt's cock and moved away to grab lube and condoms. He looked back and had to grab the base of his cock to keep from coming at the sight of Kurt stretched across his bed moaning and writhing for him. "Don't worry baby I'm going to make you feel so good, " Sebastian said as he crawled back over Kurt.

Sebastian coated his fingers in lube and started teasing Kurt's hole.  He groaned again as Kurt wriggled around and said, "oh god I want it Bas! Put it in now!" Sebastian leaned down and sucked on Kurt's cock as he pushed the first finger in. He had to restrain himself as he worked more fingers into Kurt's hole, and listened to his beautiful lover moan for more.

Finally Sebastian deemed Kurt ready and leant back to cover his throbbing cock with the condom and lube. He moved back over Kurt and kissed him strongly as he lined up his cock with Kurt's entrance. "you're so hot and stretched out all for me baby. Do you want it? Do you want my big cock deep inside you?"  Sebastian gasped as Kurt tried to push himself down on Sebastian's cock.

Kurt glared into his boyfriend's eyes and demanded, "give me your cock Smythe I want it fucking hard and now!" Sebastian growled and shoved his cock into Kurt's hole nice and deep. "Don't worry babe I'm going to give it to you so good." Sebastian started thrusting his cock in and out of Kurt's hole in long steady strokes. He smirked when he angled his cock differently and hit Kurt's sweet spot, making his lover scream for him.

"Oh Bas fuck me fuck me! Go harder! Deeper!" Sebastian picked up the pace and started pounding Kurt's hole faster and harder. Kurt moved his hips trying to get more of Sebastian's cock inside him. Sebastian was very appreciative, " Oh fuck Kurt, look at you take my fucking cock. So sexy baby!"  Sebastian punctuated this with several hard thrusts into Kurt's ass.

Kurt felt himself getting closer and he made eye contact with his sexy green-eyed god. "Baby I'm almost there you're fucking me so good." Sebastian unleashed his frayed control and thrust wildly into Kurt as they both came with a shout. Sebastian collapsed on Kurt and slowly rolled off to his side, pulling his cock out of Kurt's hole.

Sebastian pulled off the condom and threw it into the trash. He turned back to Kurt and pulled the man he loved into his arms for some post-coital cuddling.  "I'm so glad you gave me a chance Kurt. I love you so much."  Kurt smiled up at Sebastian, "You're so worth it Bas and I love you too. Thank you for giving us a chance." Sebastian held his boyfriend a little tighter and started thinking that maybe he could be everything that Kurt needed. as long as he had his beautiful princess by his side.

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Meanwhile Sebastian's grandmother was looking at a message from her grandson in confusion.

_Dear Grandmother,_

_Tomorrow I will be arriving at your home, so that we may settle our differences and if not that, our affairs together once and for all. It's time that this came to an end. I only hope you can find a shred of familial love in your heart for me, so that we can end this to both our satisfactions._

_Your grandson,_

_Sebastian Smythe_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to leave the grammy showdown til the next chappie. That chappie will also see if our boys will go the distance together or move into a strong friendship. Coming to the end here my darlings. Please comment and give me the power to continue.


	9. Showdowns and Victories

Sebastian was surprised at the way he was feeling in his grandmother's house today. He was waiting in his grandmother's home office for their meeting. As he waited he realized that he felt free for the first time in several years of dealing with his grandmother. He chuckled to himself and thought, ' _must be true about what they say concerning the love of a good man_ ' .

Sebastian stood up as his grandmother finally made an appearance. He kept his gaze steady and confident as she stared at him and finally waved him to sit in front of her desk. "Sebastian I must confess myself surprised by your message requesting this meeting," started the Smythe matriarch, "I thought we had come to an agreement we were both satisfied with...." His grandmother trailed off as she looked at her grandson speculatively.

Sebastian smiled as he began to feel the relief of finally dealing with this woman and her disdain. "Actually grandmother I wanted you to know that this arrangement has allowed me to find someone as you know, but that it has also brought me to a point where I can no longer allow it to continue," Sebastian began.

Sebastian smiled even more at the pinched look on his grandmother's face. " Honestly grandmother you haven't made me care enough about our agreement to go through with it. To be perfectly frank since I came out to the family you haven't made me care enough to deal with anything to do with you." Sebastian held up a hand to stop his grandmother from interrupting.

"I think for this once we should be honest grandmother. You don't approve of me or my lifestyle you've made that clear, and for awhile I think I believed your bad opinion of me. That is the only reason I can think of for agreeing to our arrangement in the first place. Thankfully falling in love with my beautiful and stubborn as hell boyfriend has begun to change that," Sebastian continued.

Sebastian's grandmother took the opportunity to inject her opinion. "Now Sebastian our arrangement was to your benefit, and I do wish to see you settled...." Sebastian cut her off and started speaking again, "Actually I finally realized that it wasn't to my benefit at all. With this thing hanging over me anyone I was involved with wouldn't have all of me without restrictions. There would always be something hanging over the relationship and I'm just glad that my boyfriend was willing to wait for me to see that."

Sebastian looked at the quiet anger on his grandmother's face and felt nothing. He decided to bring this to a close. "Grandmother I believe that it's time for us to dissolve what little remains of our relationship. Just so we're clear this is me bowing out of our arrangement. You may do whatever you wish with my trust and we will never have to deal with each other save family events," Sebastian finished and stood up to make his way to the door.

As he reached the door he paused with his hand on the handle and turned to look at his grandmother. "If you truly have some positive emotion for me in your heart than I want you to know that I think I have found what's best for me. For the first time in awhile I'm truly happy with life and I owe that to Kurt. He is the man I love and I hope the man I will be building my life with. Even if the two of us don't work out, he has taught me a lot about myself and what I want. I'm going to be great and I hope that some part of you truly wished this for me," Sebastian smiled at his grandmother and walked out the door.

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Kurt was waiting at the coffee place for Sebastian, at their usual table. Sebastian smiled as he dropped into the seat opposite his boyfriend. Kurt looked at Sebastian anxiously and asked, "Well how did it go? She didn't upset you did she? She didn't pull another trick out of her evil hat to make you do something else right? She--." Sebastian laughed as he pulled his hand away from Kurt's mouth.

"Don't worry so much princess," he laughed as Kurt raised an eyebrow at that, " I'm fine and I don't know about the future, but for now I have cut off all ties to my grandmother, and I couldn't be happier." Kurt still looked worried as he asked again, "She didn't do anything? You're sure about throwing this away? I don't want you to resent me if--." Sebastian leaned across the table and cut Kurt off with a kiss.

As he pulled back Sebastian looked into Kurt's gorgeous eyes and grabbed one of his hands. "Kurt please believe that I am more grateful to you than I can possibly explain. The price attached to the deal with my grandmother isn't one that I was willing to pay anymore. Yes it is mostly to do with you, but even if you realize that you could do better and leave me one day I will still be grateful. You helped me see what I would lose by continuing to dance to that woman's tune."

Sebastian stood up from the table and pulled Kurt to him. "I love you princess and being able to show you that is a major perk of ending a bad situation I let go on to long." Kurt's eyes watered a little as he wrapped himself tighter around his boyfriend. " You're ridiculous and wonderful meerkat. I don't think I could ever do better than the man I fell for when I was broken. You helped me too and I'm not letting you go for anything Smythe. You're stuck with me and we'll just have to live with it."

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Over the next year the men had plenty of rough and smooth patches  in their relationship. Real world stress was always there and they didn't always handle it well. They realized the important thing was that they still managed to want to be together despite the occasional urge to smother the other person.

They managed to keep their lives intertwined and brought their friends and family together with a minimum of bloodshed. Although Sebastian swore that Burt Hummel was ready to put him in the ground if Kurt ever deemed it necessary. Kurt just rolled his eyes and ignored Sebastian's dramatics. Which was very easy after seeing his boyfriend and father enjoying themselves together whenever Kurt and Sebastian visited home.

As they approached their one year anniversary Sebastian found himself amazed that he had managed to hold on to one person long enough to reach this point. A month before their anniversary they were hanging out with Niff and the girls at their favorite club. Sebastian watched as Kurt and Rachel tried to keep up with Niff and their inventive dancing.

He and Santana had elected to sit out and watch the others. They were enjoying a companionable silence when Sebastian started chuckling to himself. Santana raised an eyebrow and said, "Are you high chipmunk? What did they put in your drink?"  Sebastian turned to his friend and replied, " For awhile I thought it was amazing that Kurt and I had managed to stick it out so long. I thought for sure he would've moved on to greener pastures."

Santana snorted, "Okay ignoring the fact that he wouldn't do that because he isn't a cow.  I think it's obvious to everyone that porcelain is here to stay." Sebastian smiled and said, " yeah I realized that I am too. In fact I don't think a year is close to long enough for me." Santana looked at him with narrowed eyes. Finally she smiled and said, " So when are we doing ring shopping?"  Sebastian hugged her and asked, "tomorrow work for you?"

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Kurt was pretty sure that Sebastian was getting ready to break up with him, and on their first anniversary no less!  For the last month Sebastian had been acting oddly. Kurt suspected that coming up on a whole year together had thrown his boyfriend for a loop. He had been too afraid to bring it up, because he didn't want to speed up an ending if it was going to happen.

Now Kurt was torn between being glad they had managed to make it to their fancy anniversary dinner and being horrified that they were only going to have one year. Kurt looked at Sebastian as they walked hand in hand along a beautiful fountain in the park. Sebastian looked extremely nervous and Kurt couldn't take it anymore.

"Sebastian for gods sakes you've been acting weird for the last month! If you're going to break up with me just do it and get it over with, " Kurt yelled. Sebastian stopped dead and looked at Kurt with his eyes and mouth open. As Sebastian just stood there Kurt's eyes started watering and he stomped off towards a bench in front of the fountain. As he sat down he looked up and saw Sebastian rushing towards him.

"Oh god Kurt no! I'm not breaking up with you! I love you, " Sebastian said panicked.  "I've been weird because I've been trying to figure out how to give you this."  Sebastian pulled out a black ring box and shoved it into Kurt's trembling hands. Kurt slowly opened the box and pulled out a beautiful platinum band. Speechless he lifted up the ring for closer inspection and noticed an inscription. He looked at Sebastian kneeling before him and asked, "For love?"

Sebastian smiled and looked more relaxed than he had in weeks. He took the ring from Kurt and looked at the man he loved so much. "When you first asked me to be yours, you said you needed to know if I would fight for love or money. I chose right the first time and when I'm with you I know I'll choose right every time. I've been trying to come up with some big romantic way to ask you this but, I think we'll be safer if I just keep it simple."

Sebastian grabbed Kurt's left hand and asked, " Kurt Elizabeth Hummel you are the love of my life. One year isn't nearly long enough for me, so I'm going to be greedy and ask for all the ones we have left. Will you marry me and wear this symbol of my desire to always fight for love and for us?" Kurt laughed and wiped the now happy tears from his eyes. He took the ring from Sebastian and slid it on the correct finger. He then leaned down kissed his fiancé passionately. After awhile he leaned back and said, " Of course meerkat who else would have you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YAY!!!!! okay sorry for the delay but now we have happy boys! the epilogue will cover the wedding and possible husband smex.


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